Windows to the World

How often have we wondered on the enormous amount of knowledge this world holds? Many times and it’s not surprising that countless inhabitants of Mother Earth have given in to the pursuit of knowledge. We, as a human being are of very curious nature. Our curiosity isn’t limited to the ill-effects of hydrated silica in our daily tooth paste to our digestive tract, or that juicy piece of leak by Edward Snowden on USA but also if water exists on Mars and thus proving life on Mars or if Peter Higgs’ discredited paper in 1964 on “God-particle” proves that it really exists.

In the last decade, it has become common to refer to the computer screen (or the Internet accessed through it) as a window to the world. The internet is readily available today to quench our thirst for knowledge. In a TED talk (TED Vancouver, March 2014) by web cartoonist Randall Munroe, says on how he has a feature on his website where people submit hypothetical questions, which he answers by using mathematics, science and the mother of creative thinking-comics. There were questions like “What would happen if you tried to hit a baseball pitched at 90% the speed of light?”,etc. Upon investigating for a question by another person he struck upon on an earth-shattering finding, he estimated the amount of data Google has, the result was whooping, a gigantic 15 Exabyte (1 Exabyte=1024 Petabyte and 1 Petabyte =1024 terabyte) on all online and offline storage. We all remember Steve Wozniak, inspiration to millions of computer geeks all over the world; as a matter of fact many believe that Wozniak is the real brains behind Apple Inc. He once said, “Never trust a computer you can’t throw out the window”. Literally very funny but it forces us to delve a little deeper, in this golden era of Information we are attacked by the bits and bytes of the unruly binary battle, it is very routine to stumble upon the dome of ambiguous data or be blinded by the cloud of confusion.

In the earlier days, the windows to the world or “fenȇtre sur de monde” in French referred to the black and white television, radio or the trusted press. Today the amount of information transmitted half or one-third of the underlying opinion or “judgment”. It is in human nature to receive, analyze and then criticize the facts furnished but in this age where making a judgment is like second nature to us, the information is often tainted with our own views on it and adulterated information isn’t the real information. I imagine that many of us have stumbled onto motivating quotes by renowned personalities on our ‘facebook wall’ or ‘twitter feed’ and then coming to terms that it isn’t actually true. In this epoch, where transmission is faster than the blink of the eye, it’s likely that erroneous information will be believed and passed on.

The windows to the world are those antiques which aids us to broaden our view, perspective or understanding and give us a taste of the big picture. I consider the true windows to the world to be within ourselves. It is not a notion of utopia but the notion of the true understanding. A person who isn’t blinded by the knack of criticism is well received to gain the clear perspective of the big picture.

In this digitized world with immense knowledge, it’s really important not to let go off our true self and it’s really important to be just “us” to get hold of the real understanding. It is within us to search for the real understanding and open the latch to our window to the world.